Jay Lewis’ years of hard work made that run look easy

Jay “Laché” Lewis came into season 13 of American Ninja Warrior with a lot of hype behind him. He trains with Joe Moravsky. He’s done well on American Ninja Warrior Junior. There were high expectations for the 17-year-old.

So naturally, he delivered.

His run on the course was textbook perfect. There’s not too much to say about it because he did every obstacle exactly how it was intended to be done, earning him the seventh spot on the leaderboard for the night. The run could be used as training footage for future competitors. But Jay’s skills aren’t solely due to him being a natural Ninja, he’s been working towards this for years.

“I’ve been training for about five and half years now. I was lucky enough to be on the first season of ANW Jr where I made the Semifinals,” Jay told us before he started his season.

“Getting the call (for ANW) was definitely a surreal experience. I was talking to Blake (Feero) and he had gotten his (call) like five minutes before. I was really nervous. My phone rang with the 818 number and I screamed at my mom, ‘That’s it. That’s the call.’ I was on cloud nine. I don’t think I slept at all that night.”

“I’m just going out there to give it my all. I’m not here just for fun. The goal is to win it all. But no matter what I do, I’m excited about the whole experience.

The goal today is to get to LA (Semifinals). I really want a buzzer. If I get there, Mega Wall. 100%. It’s not my main focus. I really want to get that buzzer. Whether it’s the Mega Wall buzzer or the normal wall, that’s totally cool.”

Jay did give the Mega Wall a try but came up slightly short of that goal. However, he still has the Semifinals ahead of him and he’s in great shape to add another buzzer to his rookie year.